75-year-old sentenced for stealing truck

A Langley septuagenarian has been given a conditional sentence for stealing a truck more than two years ago. Following a four-day trial, Roelof Frederik Den Dryver, 75, was found guilty in September of theft over $5,000, possession of stolen property over $5,000 and reporting an offence committed when it was not. He was acquitted of three other charges. Den Dryver was sentenced Friday in provincial court in Surrey. According to information previously released by police, in March 2012 Den Dryver went to a Langley car dealership and test drove a new Dodge pickup.

A short time later he reported to police that he had been carjacked and the truck was stolen. Later that month, Langley RCMP received a report of a new Dodge pickup parked in the trees on the property in the 6600-block 256th Street where Den Dryver lived with 32-year-old Derek Sean Hall. When police arrived, the truck was gone.

Langley RCMP kept investigating and in July 2012 obtained a warrant to search the property.

They found a Caterpillar loader and Komatsu bulldozer that had been reported stolen in March of that year, keys for the pickup that had allegedly been carjacked and a stolen utility trailer.

They also found a truck on which Hall had offered to do engine work for a friend the previous year. Hall had allegedly told his friend and reported to police that the truck had been stolen.

The missing Dodge pickup was later recovered at the home of a relative of Den Dryver. Den Dryver was given an 18-month conditional sentence.

A sentencing hearing for Hall on a count of theft and two counts of possession of stolen property has been scheduled for December.